Dreamspider Publicity is so excited about MerleFest 2012! Dreamspider is working with 5 acts that will be performing this weekend including Donna the Buffalo, Red June, The Honeycutters, Johnson’s Crossroad, and Jonathan Scales Fourchestra. Both Red June and The Honeycutters have albums due out soon! Please click on the images for links to their websites.

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Donna the Buffalo’s feel-good, groove-oriented, danceable and often socially conscious music all began over twenty years ago with roots in old time fiddle music that evolved into a soulful electric Americana mix infused with elements of cajun/ zydeco, rock, folk, reggae, and country. Donna the Buffalo is known for touring the country remaining fiercely independent as one of the industry’s most diverse roots-music bands and has “earned a reputation as one of the most respected, eclectic and hardest-working acts today,” praises Encore. The dynamic songwriting tandem of vocalists Jeb Puryear and Tara Nevins have penned over 180 songs in their collaboration with DTB and have many more in the making.

Saturday, April 28, 2012
Creekside Stage: 2-3:30PM Tara will sit in for a song with Peter Wernick’s Flexigrass

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Sunday, April 29, 2012
Traditional Tent: 11:30AM-12:30PM Tara will take part in the “Women Who Sing Traditional Music” workshop

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Red June is an acoustic trio based in Asheville, NC who creates and performs beautifully distilled Americana music. They are making waves with their dynamic, yet refined sound that features striking 3-part harmonies, tasteful instrumental work and honest, soulful songwriting that seamlessly blends old-time, bluegrass, roots rock and traditional country music. Poised to release their second full-length album, Beauty Will Come, on June 5th, 2012, listeners can expect an album to fall in love with. “The record is a brilliant integration of old-time, bluegrass, and beyond, and feels like a holding of hands… the blend is beautiful,” says singer/songwriter Kari Sickenberger of Polecat Creek. Red June is made up of Will Straughan on resonator guitar, vocals and guitar, John Cloyd Miller on mandolin, vocals and guitar, and Natalya Weinstein on fiddle and vocals.

The Honeycutters are excited to introduce their second full length studio release, When Bitter Met Sweet this spring. Like their first release, Irene, When Bitter Met Sweet features singer/songwriter Amanda Anne Platt, who has been hailed as “one of the best songwriters coming out of WNC these days” by WNCW programming director Martin Anderson. Peter James accompanies her on lead and rhythm guitar as well as harmony vocals. The Real Southern Say, “I can see a day when her name is mentioned alongside Lucinda Williams, Mary Gauthier and Gillian Welch. She’s just that good.”

Johnson’s Crossroad has been described by friends and fans as everything from Appalachian Soul” to “Hillbilly Metal.” The band blends blues, roots-rock, folk, bluegrass, and Appalachian Old Time for a sound that The Daily Times’ Steve Wildsmith calls “both mournful and jubilant, breezy and graveyard serious.” He goes on to comment that frontman Paul Johnson’s voice “barely rises above a growl, but he stretches that sound to encompass the experience of a train-hopping hobo and the wisdom of an old man recalling loves lost and wars fought from the porch of a backwoods cabin.” Watching his back is mandolin player Keith Minguez, a strong friendship at the core of the group… ironically enough the band originated on Keith’s first visit to MerleFest watching John Hartford perform.
*Johnson’s Crossroad MerleFest Schedule:

Classically trained composer turned steel pan maestro and front man of the Fourchestra, Jonathan Scales is heavily influenced by the complexity of banjo virtuoso Bela Fleck to the hustle of Jay-Z and is known for his unique presentation of the Steel Pan that brings the instrument into new realms of musical influence and has been called, “… a rising star of the steel drums” by Traps Magazine and “The Real Deal [with] a Thelonius Monk-like attitude with a Mozart creativity that works” by Pan on the Net. Fusion-chops bassist, Cody Wright provides the harmonic support for Scales’ sound, while jazz/hip-hop drummer, Phill Bronson, drives the time-shifting, modern grooves. Premier Steel Pan Magazine When Steel Talks says, “At the end of the day, Scales is going to be a major play in rewriting the books on steelpan music outside of the box.”